FRENCH OR ITALIAN, CIRCA 1775-1780

In the mid-1770s in Paris tapé coiffure became fashionable, in which hair was lifted and frizzed finely in huge curls so as to form a kind of halo or diadem around the face, whilst the forehead was left uncovered and the hair on the back remained smooth. This fashion spread throughout Europe, particularly to England. This flamboyant style was quickly satirised in cartoons, such as 'The extravaganza, or the mountain head dress of 1776' (Matthew Darly, 10 April 1776, see British Museum, inv. no. J,5.126). The present bust has been linked with the Franco-Italo sculptor Gaetano Merchi (1747-1823), who made several portraits of ladies from the court of Louis XVI in Paris in the late 1770s.